Observations. My methods of Teaching. Traditional.

Sorry for the super late post. As mention above, I've been experiencing a lot for the past 3 weeks. Hurmmm.  I taught form 2A4, and in the first class I have some difficulties of engaging my students to get involved in my teaching activity. They are passive and not that active in class. i got to ask them and they answered very little with sometimes, a few elaboration. I taught them on literature in my first class, on Rumplestiltskin. Form what I know, I heard one of my students in the class told me that he doesnt like the drama, Rumplestiltskin. For him, it is not interesting and I was shocked to hear that he said that this drama is so childish. Oh well, kids nowadays, they grow up to soon. maybe he was exposed to all sorts of entertainment and all, if you guys know what I mean. But they were really good in writing. They use words like prerequisite, punitive and a lot more that I did not expect in my teaching practice, what more from the form 2 students. They are good. But they also have some grammatical problems, just a little bit here and there. And yeah, they understood what I taught in the class.

For my Moral classes, I've been experiencing problems with 1C2 class. This class is extremely noisy and they are not cooperative at all. But I too, have my own ways to cope with this students. From the tips given by the previous Moral teacher that taught them, one way to 'stop' them form behaving inappropriately while lesson is being conducted, is to use the discipline teachers name and their PELBEL's mark. PELBEL marks consist of 10 marks from their final examinations. Teachers of each subject is ought to give 10 marks but it depends on how the students behave in the class, their attitude and their notebooks. Plus I've been told that I will help to mark their papers for the finals and thus I told them if they are not behaving in a good way in the class, I will deduct their marks, and that's it.

 One thing that I realize from the culture of this school is that, the students does not have any disciplinary issues, just those little little things they do in the classroom, like being playful, naughty and cheeky. To see at one side of it, I felt that I'm lucky to have been posted to this school. For 1A5 and 1A6, these are the good classes. For the first time I entered their class, the questions being thrown at me were "What will be the question like, sir?" or some will ask directly "What will come out in the exam teacher?", I just respond that if you focus and pay attention in my class, you will understand everything and would scored with flying colors in the final exam.

My Observations. Being Observed.

Mdm Norini Abbas. She came unannounced. I was on MC the previous day and I did not prepared any lesson plans for the next day, but did prepared for the lesson. That day I was supposed to teach form 2A4 on revision. I wanted to touch on One is one and All Alone by Nicholas Fisk. I know, this is not a good sign. And I know, it's my bad. But she told me to proceed, and told me to hand in the lesson plan when she come for her next visit to the school. I was so nervous, and it was double period. i touch on literature aspects such as themes and moral values. What I did in the class was, I told my students to work in pairs and to discuss the themes and the moral values. They discussed for like 15 minutes, and they presented all their ideas and share the with the rest of the class. I admit it was quite lame. But what's important for me is the input they got form this activity. i managed to dig in all their knowledge on the short story and it seems quite impressive. For me.

And as for Mdm Norini, the comments were...I am a traditional teacher with traditional method. Quite authoritative in a way that I controlled the class well and dress pleasantly. Apart form that the only negative comment was that I am using traditional method. Teacher centered. Hmmmm. I guess I gotta improve on my ways of teaching, more realistic and creative, because of marks and all. Quite disappointed but, it motivates me to create a much more interesting lesson. I promise to improve more on my teaching, on my teaching aids etc.

And as for Moral, Dr. Visha came to observed. This time a rather prepared classroom activities. She came to observe me teaching in  my 1A6 class, one of the good class. I gave the students activities in group. I asked them to form a government complete with prime minister and minister. And I asked them to create a name for their 'country' which is their group. The task is on how to create a peace world and what are their countries' policies towards world peace. It was fun and I can tell that this class had a very creative mind and their ways of thinking is beyond my expectations. The comments: Dr. Visha said it was an interesting activity for a Moral lesson, to get involved the students and to dig in their moral behaviours, cognitives and attitudes towards the task given. The only thing is that she told me to dig in more because I get more information on their ideas and perceptions especially on the current happenings around the world that is related to world peace. I should improve more on my teaching aids and some to do some adjustments on my lesson plans. Overall it was okay in a sense that my students show their cooperation especially when my observer came in.

To conclude, I can see that my students need activity that interests them to participate in. Spending a hard time cracking my head to find some of the interesting and creative activities to applied in my lesson. And yeah, there will be LADAP, for those who do not know what LADAP is, it's an acronym in full : Latihan Dalam Pengajaran, and this workshop is being organized by Taylor's for the school to enhance teaching, and it's compulsory for every teachers to attend, including trainees! Hopefully I would get some good input and output from this LADAP, despite being a trainee.

Good luck to all trainees. Or Teachers! To be precised. :P

Gabriel Ambang
SMJK Katholik (Catholic High, Petaling Jaya)